Be Careful What You Wish For: A Zombie Apocalypse-Chapter 501: Death’s Obsession

Spinning around, I walked into the house, knowing that the guys were following behind me. We were silent; there was no need to talk, and nothing needed to be said. I said my peace, and now everyone had the option of either falling in or falling out. Either way, I was done.

Every step that I took into Hallow was like walking through mud. Already, I was beginning to be weighed down by all the unseen tethers of each and every demon in the western hemisphere.

I could feel the happiness of millions, their fears, their joys, their rage. Everything seemed to pour down on me until I was desperately gasping for air. And yet, not one of my men seemed to realize it.

Dante, Tank, Beau, and Luca were softly joking with each other, happy that I called them mine. Dimitri and Eric, a weird team if I ever saw one, were talking about the security measures surrounding Hallow, as if anyone stood a chance of getting into this sanctuary.

I could have sworn that Ronan was fast asleep, even as he was walking, and Salvatore was walking quietly by his side, making sure that he didn’t walk into anything. Désiré, too, even though he was alone, seemed to be preoccupied with something in his own head.

Letting out a long sigh, I closed my eyes, even as Daddy swept me off my feet and carried me away. "Let’s get you someplace else, okay?" he murmured, striding down the hallway like he knew exactly where he was going.

Me? I got lost the second I walked out of my door, but Daddy probably already had the entire castle laid out in his head.

"Wherever you want," I shrugged, resting my head on his shoulder and closing my eyes. "I am at your mercy."

Chang Xuefeng let out a low growl at my teasing, but otherwise didn’t say anything. The sigh I let out this time was a lot softer. Maybe I had messed up. Maybe I did something wrong by calling Chang Xuefeng Daddy. Maybe he could never see me as anything other than a little girl.

The lump of tears stuck in my throat, choking me as I thought about a life where I couldn’t have him completely. But unlike the rest of the guys, Daddy never made that move. He might have flirted, but I could never be sure, and he never really treated me as anything other than a little girl.

Fuck. I think I shot myself in the foot with that nickname.

Finding my bedroom without Hallow leading the way, Chang Xuefeng walked through the opaque ’door’ that wasn’t really a door. I mean, it looked like one, a wooden one with brass hardware, but seeing as you could just walk through, it didn’t count as a door in my opinion.

Striding over to the massive bed, he gently placed me on the covers and looked down at me. "Want to tell me what’s going on? You seem off, like something is weighing on you. Is it the tethers? They still bother me sometimes, too."

That startled me. It never occurred to me that he could feel the tethers. But I guess as the God Death, he always had a direct connection to every living thing.

"I’ll get used to it," I shrugged, like it wasn’t that big of a deal. "In a way, I did ask for it."

Chang Xuefeng scoffed as he stood with his back to the door, his arms crossed in front of him. His t-shirt stretched over his muscular chest, not a wrinkle in sight, but his hair was somewhat messy, like he had been running his fingers through it too many times.

It was a good look on him, which sucked for me.

I was getting horny, and the one man that I wanted was the one I couldn’t get.

"You didn’t ask for it," he assured me, keeping his distance now that he had let me go. "I don’t think anyone ever asks to be tied to another, let alone millions."

"I guess I should be happy that so many people ended up dying in the apocalypse," I chuckled, tilting my head to the side. "Otherwise, that millions of demons would be billions. And I don’t think I could handle that weight."

"You can handle more than you think," praised Chang Xuefeng. His expression was unreadable, but it wasn’t hard to guess that he was thinking too much.

He always thought too much.

"You know," I said, taking in a deep breath. This was my one chance to change everything between us, and I really didn’t want to fuck it up. "You can come closer. I don’t bite," I teased, even as I bit my bottom lip and looked up at him.

He turned to me slowly, his dark eyes landing on mine like he knew what was in my head. And that could be either a blessing or a sentence at this particular moment. "You do," he said at last. "You just don’t leave marks."

That made me smile. He wasn’t shutting me down completely. He wasn’t telling me to take a nap. He was staying.

I had to push more.

Leaning back, my arms braced behind me, I purred. "Everyone else is busy doing something else. There are no more wishes, no more monsters. No one to save but you."

I knew my heart was in my eyes, but I couldn’t stop myself. I needed him more than I needed my next breath.

He took a step forward...then another. "And you," he growled softly, his legs brushing against my where they dangled off the bed.

"I’m not asking to be saved," I pointed out. I wanted to beg for his touch, for his real touch. But a part of me held back, not wanting to put myself in such a vulnerable position, just in case he said no.

But no matter how many walls I tried to build, I knew it was too late for me. If he turned away right now, I was going to shatter into a hundred thousand pieces, and none of the other guys would ever be able to put me back together again.

"I’m not offering to," he replied, the look in his eyes turning dark and possessive. I held my breath, terrified that this was nothing more than a dream, and I would wake up if I so much as breathed too loud.

Ever so slowly, I shifted until I was kneeling on the bed, my face tilting just enough to be able to meet his eyes... just enough to bask in their obsession. "You’re still looking at me like I’m going to shatter."

"You scare me," he admitted at last, and my heart shattered. Sinking back down until I was resting on my heels, I stared at the hands in my lap, unable to look at him anymore.

When it came to the question of whether it was better to be loved or feared... I just got my answer when it came to Chang Xuefeng.